Kim Welch wins The Big Break Ka’anapali over Sophie Sandolo, 4 and 3. It seemed a bit anti-climactic after all that’s gone on, but congratulations to Kim. Me – ow! I had a hunch that she was going to win it all. Kim did the least to promote herself on the internet of almost all the competitors.
After reflecting upon the latest season of The Big Break, it seems that the drama has become much more important than the golf. After all, we are watching (for the most part) of bunch of players that we have never heard of and probably would never follow anyways (how many Futures Tour events are televised). For that matter, The Big Break really isn’t about golf. We had to wait until the last show to get a full fifteen holes of golf and, frankly, it was boring. I was genuinely surprised to see The Golf Channel get in fifteen holes of golf in an hour with all the commercials that they cram into The Big Break. The Golf Channel cheated to get in 15 holes of golf as they often blew through a summary of a hole or so that we weren’t able to see.
Looking back at the season I found the following surprising:
1 – Just how good these women were out of the bunkers. For the most part, their bunker play was exceptional and completely overshadowed their putting abilities. Heck, their bunker play was even better than their chipping games.
2 – Just how poor their putting was overall. Granted, the greens were very difficult and the pressure was on but I was surprised to see so many three putts out of professional golfers. Generally, professional golfers deal with pressure and difficult greens on a regular basis.
3 – Andrew Magee turned out to be a better announcer than I had expected.
4 – How easily Lori swayed a group of women against Christina. I was disappointed in Kim and Sophie for jumping on that train. Sure, Christina may have said something inappropriate. Should Susan have conveyed it to everyone else? Also, in my opinion, the etiquette violations against Christina were just a bunch of bullshit.
If you are truly a professional, comments from your competitors should have zero effect on you. It’s amazing how people are so hurt by words. In this case, words that were never heard by the competitor at the time. Tina Miller never heard Christina’s comment while she was playing. It had no effect on her game at the time. If you (and that’s you, in general) are easily offended by what someone else says then you really need to look at yourself and ask why you are so offended. In the end, you control your reaction to what has been said. If you want to go past the Futures tour then one thing to work on is your reaction to what has been said to you. If you are easily thrown off your game by words, you’ll never go far in golf. Perhaps this is why Lori has spent so much time on the Futures Tour.
Perhaps there’s something about reality television that brings the worst out of people.
5 – How Christina became the fan favorite after being victimized by Lori and the rest. I was glad to see Kim win it all. She seemed to be the class of the field from the beginning in terms of playing ability and integrity. Despite her comments and alleged etiquette violations, Christina, imho, was the star of the show thanks to the bullying of Lori, et al. Americans like the underdog. Too bad Christina didn’t wax Lori in their head to head match up.
6 – How Kim was almost unable to take advantage of her length over Sophie in the finale. Lori claims that Kim’s length was too much for Sophie in her Big Break blog. I didn’t see that to be the case. Kim had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of her length but really only did so on a couple occasions, perhaps just one. In reflecting on it, Kim only stuck one approach right on the hole and still missed the birdie putt. Sophie went on to three putt that hole. Putting cost Sophie in the final not length off the tee. Oops, I take that back. On the final hole, Kim’s length helped her as she was able to chip to within six inches for the victory.
7 – How little the non-winners of The Big Break end up with. Despite working the internet hard, Tina Miller’s last podcast was a bit depressing. The Big Break hasn’t resulted in much for her in terms of sponsorship. In fact, she had even considered quitting golf. Wow! Can someone put up some bucks to at least give her an honest shot at making it in golf? In fact, outside of the BMW, Kim didn’t really end up with a whole lot. 20 grand can’t go that far. I’m sure the entry fee waivers are nice as well but whom are we kidding here? Wonder if she sold the car?